Monday July 28, 2008

Nall won gold, silver and bronze in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. She got her start in the YMCA program in Pennsylvania, and as a precocious 12-year-old, predicted she would make the Olympic team.

Nall and her family moved to Baltimore shortly after that breakthrough year, when she nearly set a national age group record. She then connected with Murray Stephens at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club.

Nall talks about the first time she swam at an international meet, which was the 1991 Pan-Pacific Championships in Canada. She was a green 14-year-old who was not aware of the proper diet, exercise and care she needed to take at the meet, where she swam lower than expectations. She learned from that experience, and broke the world record in the 200 breaststroke twice at the Olympic Trials in 1992.

She went on to capture gold, silver and bronze medals at the Barcelona Olympics. As the world record holder at the time, Nall talks about how she had to put the upset of settling for bronze in the 200 breast aside and swim a best time in the 100 breast. She went on to help the 400 medley relay win a gold medal.

In 1994, Nall began experiencing a series of mystery illnesses which began to hamper her training and lifestyle. Doctors and traditional medicines were unable to fully diagnose the symptoms.

"I knew what everyone was thinking, that this must all be in my head," she told Show Host Brent Rutemiller.

Nall made a run at making another Olympic team in 1996 and 2000, while still suffering from joint inflammation and bodyaches. "It would take me literally three days to recover from one good (training session)," she says.

In 1998, Nall started exploring a new dietary plan including that removal of milk from her diet. The sinus infections went away, and Nall continued to research other options to help treat her other mystery symptoms.

Today, Nall says she's completely healthy, and runs a nutrition consulting company call PhenomeNALL Nutrition that helps others find their path to healing a lot quicker than she did.